Mei Wukong's Unexpected Journey

**"You must remember, Mei Wukong. Remember your origin. You are not of this world.**

I looked up from my drawing, the image of a young woman with long red hair and green eyes who was smiling and shaking her head no. "I don't know what you're talking about. I was born in Dunedin, New Zealand."

The old man looked at me sadly and shook his head slowly, then reached for my drawing. He held it close to his face and squinted his eyes as he studied it intently. He finally looked up at me, smiling mysteriously, then held out his hand. "Your name is Mei Wukong, a Chinese girl who is living in New Zealand in the year 2016."

I took my drawing and stared at it for a moment. It was true that I had never been to China, but I had been to Auckland once on a school trip when I was 12 and we went to see the China Town there. The woman in the picture did kind of look like someone I saw there. Maybe that's where I got the idea? Maybe the woman in my dream gave me the idea? But how could she have done that? Why would she do that?

"Do you know how you got here?" asked the old man politely.

I shook my head no again, putting down my drawing pad and pencil and staring into space as if trying to remember something far away. How did I get here? What happened to me before Dunedin? Who was I really? Why couldn't I remember anything before Dunedin? What had happened before Dunedin? Where am I from? Why can't I remember? What's wrong with me? Why can't I remember anything before Dunedin? Why can't anyone tell me anything about myself before Dunedin? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with us all *here*??

"Mei Wukong...," repeated the old man softly after a few moments silence. "What does it mean?"

I looked at him blankly for a moment, then smiled at him. "It means little monkey." It seemed funny to me somehow, even though I didn't know why it should be funny to me or why I'd ever think of naming myself "little monkey". "My dad used to call me 'little monkey', so they called me Mei Wukong because it sounds like 'little monkey' in Chinese."

He continued looking at me with that same sad expression on his face as if he were trying to figure out whether or not he should say something else or not. Finally he spoke: "If they called you 'little monkey', why did they call you 'Mei Wukong' instead of just plain 'Wukong'? Doesn't 'Wukong' mean 'little monkey' too?"

I cocked my head slightly as I pondered this for a bit; the question seemed odd enough to make me think for a minute before answering him: "Well, yeah...it does...but...Um... Do you know what an Onomatopoeia is?"

He nodded yes slowly which surprised me because I didn't expect him to know what one was. Most people don't even know what one is! But maybe he did know what one was because he sounded like he knew what one was or something because he said: "Onomatopoeia is a special type of word made by repeating an animal sound over and over again until it becomes its own word."

I smiled at him again because it seemed like he thought calling someone "little monkey" meant saying their name over and over and over again until their name became its own word! It really tickled my funny bone! So much so that I started giggling quietly to myself thinking about it! Like "Mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-mei-wooohoooonnnnggggkong!" You'd probably laugh too if you knew how much fun it would be! Especially if you were making fun of someone's name by doing it over and over again! That's got to be the funniest thing ever!!

But then suddenly I stopped laughing because while thinking about how much fun it would be to repeat someone's name over and over again until their name became its own word leaving them only able to respond by repeating your name back to you over and over again until your name became its own word leaving you only able to respond by repeating their name back to them which leads both names spiraling around each other until finally becoming lost in each other just like two lovers getting married so hard they forget everything else! Not even remembering themselves anymore except for each other forevermore! Just like *us* now!!